Welcome to CD2MP3 0.90!  The next step into MP3 world ... after PM123.
=======================

I always make my products very straightforward and fast to use, and I hope
this one lives up to my expectations.  Tell me what you think.

The BEST way to thank me if you like this program is to register your copy
of PM123. ;)  Thank you.  Did you know I do this instead of working for
paying my university expenses?  Oh, you don't know what is PM123?  point
your Web Browser to http://www.teamos2.sci.fi/pm123/ ASAP, you don't know
what you're missing!

Oh and I'm looking for some nice icon for this program.  It's a CONTEST!!
youhou!  First icon I like will be included in next release.  A nice color
scheme would be good too.  I wasn't able to successfully include a bitmap
as a background image.  The controls draw over it (/"$@#!).  If you KNOW
how to prevent this, let me know.

Usage
=====

To Grab CD Tracks, set the Grabber.  If CD2MP3 didn't detect your CD drive
correctly, type it in.  Set an appropriate (ie.: huge) Temporary directory
that will hold the WAV files.

Then you can start adding tracks by typing their number in the small entry
field and adding them to the listbox by pressing Enter or Add.  You can
also specify a range of tracks in the From/To fields and press Fill.

Custom is to add last minute custom parameters to the Grabber's command
line.

To convert WAV files, add WAV files by either typing theirs names and
pressing Enter, or by pressing Add and using the File Dialog, or by
dragging and dropping WAV files in the listbox.

For the MP3 setup, choose your Encoder and the global bitrate (ie.: not per
channel).  Not all the bitrates are supported for all WAV files and by all
Encoders.  Low Priority will launch the encoder in idle priority.  (This
doesn't work for DOS programs, see Notes).  High Quality is implementation
depended (see below).  Specify the MP3 directory where the final MP3 is to
be placed and some last minute custom parameters.

Note
====

CD2MP3 doesn't always know when a session has been killed or has stopped
normally, so to prevent CD2MP3 from continuing as nothing happened, press
Stop instead.  If the session doesn't get killed, then try to kill it by
yourself.  This is the case for Win32-OS/2 programs.  Don't try to close
the window.  You will lose your chance to end the session.  Kill -9 doesn't
work on them either.  The only way to terminate such a program is by
pressing Pause a couple of times (it actually works), and the program will
crash "cleanly".

To run DOS programs at idle priority, you will have to use Set Priority.
(http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/system/sp103.zip)  After installing
the utility properly, edit the Config file, set the executable to
spdos.exe, and EncoderBefore parameter to something like "i0 l3enc.exe".

Alfons DOES NOT accept a temporary directory.  It will use the current
directory as a WAV place holder.  THIS IS NOT A BUG IN CD2MP3.  It's even a
feature, else Alfons wouldn't work at all.

Config Files
============

The config file cd2mp3pm.cfg permits to add custom CD Grabber and MP3
Encoder programs support into CD2MP3.   Read the comments in the file for
more information.

Grabbers/Encoders Notes
=======================

I included Leech and Alfons, because I don't know of any other, do you?

I included ToMPG and L3Enc because I feel these are the only Encoders
anyone should ever use.  ToMPG is more than 9 times faster than L3Enc, and
I cannot hear any difference when encoding CD quality WAVs at 128kb/s. Use
it when you're in a hurry.  L3Enc 2.x just gives the best quality. It's
downsampling is magnificent and it even supports MPEG 2.5 encoding.

If you want to know more about my encoder choices, or where to find them,
read others.txt.

Legal stuff
===========

This free software (a la GNU) product is used at your own risk, although it
is highly improbable it can cause any damage.

The code is MINE, all MINE MINE MINE.  I don't wanna see people starting to
use this code as if it were public domain.  Always re-distribute the
package in its entirety and don't charge anything for it.

If you plan on using the code or copying me, please give me the credits,
thanks.


Contacting the Author
=====================
If you have any suggestions, comments or bug reports, please let me know.

Samuel Audet

E-mail:      guardia@cam.org
Homepage:    http://www.cam.org/~guardia
IRC nick:    Guardian_ (be sure it's me before starting asking questions though)
Talk Client: Guardian@guardian.dyn.ml.org

Snail Mail:

   377, rue D'Argenteuil
   Laval, Quebec
   H7N 1P7   CANADA
